SALEM IS MOPO GARDENS & NATURE WALKS GARDENS Head to the heart of town to find two gardens designed by Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver, the first women to launch a landscape architecture firm in the Pacific Northwest. Visit their former home, Gaiety Hollow, to tour their beautifully restored personal gardens. While you’re in the neighborhood, pay a visit to Bush’s Pasture Park, a 90-acre expanse filled with a mix of grassy spaces and shady groves. If you love flowers, you’re in for a treat: Park highlights include a wildflower slope that’s blanketed with color every spring. There’s also the Rhododendron Hillside, where there are around 130 types of rhododendrons and azaleas, along with hundreds more companion plants. The park’s biggest highlight, however, is its Rose Garden, where you can stop and smell nearly 100 varieties of roses. Frey’s Dahlias, in Turner, is open to visitors daily during bloom season, mid-August through mid-October. Visitors walks, strolls and nature One of the great secrets of the Willamette Valley is that it’s a prime spot for lush and vibrant gardens to flourish. The generous winter rainfall followed by long, sun-soaked summer days and rich volcanic soil make a special kind of magic for gardens, and many of the state’s most exquisite ones are found around the Salem area. Adelman Peony Gardens are welcome to walk through the fields and enjoy the flowers or cut a bouquet for themselves. Salem’s neighboring towns and rural areas offer more garden experiences. Just north of Salem, the Brooks area is home to plenty of flower farms. Both Brooks Gardens Peonies and Adelman Peony Gardens burst into color during the spring peony season and open their gardens to the public for peak bloom. Schreiner’s Gardens is another must-visit, with over 500 varieties of irises on display during the May bloom season alongside Icelandic poppies, delphinium and lupine. Any season is ideal for a visit to The Oregon Garden, an 80-acre estate that’s home to one of the nation’s largest collections of dwarf conifers. You’ll find more than 20 themed gardens designed to educate and inspire the home gardener, including pet-friendly gardens that highlight the best plants for pets. TravelSalem.com 12
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